Through the Lens: Photographic Recordation of the Milwaukee County Poor Farm Cemetery Excavations

Summary

Photography is an integral part of the archeological recordation process. This paper compares and contrasts the photographic methods of the 1991/1992 Milwaukee County Poor Farm Cemetery (MCPFC) excavations and the 2013 MCPFC excavations. In each case, the photographic record preserves the original burial context and is useful for analysis after that context is destroyed. The differences between the photographic methods of the 1991/92 excavations and the 2013 excavations represent not only technological advances in photography, but also a changing role for photography within archaeological methods. The 1991/92 excavation photographs were taken with Pentax 35 millimeter cameras and supplemented by hand drawn sketches, the 2013 excavations were photographed with two different digital cameras, which were attached to a custom built framework. Photography is a constantly evolving tool and the advances in and benefits of adjusting best practices can be clearly seen through the excavations of the same site twenty years apart. 

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Bookends: What We’ve Learned in the Twenty-two Years Separating Archaeological Excavations of the Milwaukee County Poor Farm Cemetery   •
• Society for Historical Archaeology 2017

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Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology

Record Identifiers

PaperId(s): 630